Samizdata

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer!
-Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

“If you can’t see a woman in a bikini that’s your problem. You can’t force them to cover up just because you can’t control yourself.”

-Malaysian Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir blasts Terengannu’s state government, which is led by the Islamic party, PAS, for its “Taliban-like” plan to ban tourists from wearing bikinis.

When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle
-Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Definition of a ‘barking moonbat’: someone who sacrifices sanity for the sake of consistency.
– Adriana Cronin

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
– Lily Tomlin

The free market is not a panacea. It does not eliminate old age, and it won’t guarantee you a date for Saturday night. Private enterprise is fully capable of awful screw-ups. But both theory and practice indicate that its screw-ups are less pervasive and more easily corrected than those of government enterprises, including regulatory ones.
– Paul Krugman (who actually is capable of making sense occasionally)